Terra
"For thousands of years, Earth protected her children. Now, her children must defend her." '-Xi Jiang, final Secretary-General of the United Nations' Earth, or Terra as it was named after the Abandonment of Earth, was the de jure capital of the United Sol Coalition and the homeworld of Humanity. It was overtaken and its populations destroyed and infected by Hominid pestiferum ("Man's Plague"), the Deinosect Virus. As such, its original biodiversity was all but ruined on land and instead transformed, and almost every type of land species on the planet became extinct in a 10 year period, causing the 6th Mass Extinction Event. Small portions of the Earth's surface remained in Human hands, primarily in extremely high altitude areas, such as the Himalayas, or frigid regions, such as northern Russia. The oceans remained largely intact, the Virus very inept at spreading in water, and having little to no way to do so en masse. As such, Human settlement and some form of biodiversity remained. While animals on Earth were either killed or mutated into larger forms, plants and fungi changed to grow much large and more resilient, capable of processing sunlight more effectively, using less water, and growing larger. This meant that trees rose above most of the planet, and, under these trees, a thick underbrush grew. All of the life on Earth that was affected by the Deinosect Virus was placed in the new domain of life, Deinosecta. Efforts to clear away these forests and the Deinosect scourge inside were basically impossible. The only real way to do this would be through the use of nuclear weapons, something abhorrent to the populations of post-21st century Earth. The United Nations and, subsequently, the United Sol Coalition, banned the use of nuclear weapons on Earth; they could not bring themselves to destroy their planet, and it would be a massive political and morale loss. Besides, it was argued, by 2400 the atmosphere was filled with the virus, being exhaled by the trillions of Deinosects, and nuclear weapons would only further destroy the atmosphere and completely wipe out even the remaining habitable locations and Human settlements. Earth remained in a constant state of conflict after the Abandonment of Earth. This was primarily due to the United Sol Coalition's want to use Earth both as a training ground for new troops through TERRACOM and a public relations victory. Fighting on Earth was a propaganda machine, allowing the Coalition to show themselves as still being humanity's defenders and their want to reclaim their ancient homeworld. In addition, Earth was known to have copies of the destinations of the colony ships that set out during the Abandonment of Earth, and the finding of this in the 2500's led to the Sargasian Intervention and coincided with the Deinosect War. Only extremely northern or high cities such as Norilsk, Russia, remaining actual habited Terran cities, kept alive by domes with highly advanced, multi-filter systems. The rest of the surface was littered with the remains of once-great human nations and their broken remains, as well as the few bastions of USC power on the planet. The world slowly reclaimed the city's of humanity's past and replaced them with brown and green, and humanity slowly lost its heritage. Known Locations Under United Sol Coalition Control * Northern and Mountainous Regions ** The Himalayas ** Most of Northern Russia *** Norilsk ** Most of Northern Canada ** Most of Northern Alaska * Islands and Separate Land Masses ** Greenland ** Antarctica ** New Zealand ** The Isle of Man * Deserts ** Atacama Desert ** Sahara Desert ** Gobi Deserts Category:Earth Category:United Sol Coalition Category:Human Category:Planet